


The Gayng Goes Camping

by TheSubtextMachine



Series: My Sylena Tumblr Prompts [8]
Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Camping, F R I E N D SH I P, F/F, Fluff, Gen, camp counselor syd, deep talks while looking at the sky, done on request, gay teen shenanigans, will likely only make sense if youve read OGAAT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSubtextMachine/pseuds/TheSubtextMachine
Summary: "Can u make a camping fanfic/one shot? With Syd! camp counselor because I'm dying to see it"The Pronoun Family goes camping. Everything's gay and nothing hurts.





	The Gayng Goes Camping

“hiiii so I posted this on your ao3, please can u make a pronoun squad!camping fanfic/ one shot? with Syd!counselor because I'm dying to see it”

“Margeaux I swear to _fucking_ god, if you try to balance the- MARGEAUX!” Syd screamed before rushing over to Margeaux to smack the tent pike out of zir hands. “It’s SHARP!”

It fell to the dirt, producing a dull, thudding sound that just stoked the laughter surrounding them.

All of the other tents were properly pitched except for the one Margeaux was tasked with, and Syd was appropriately livid. Their knuckles were white from clutching the clipboard so hard. Elena and Thomas were still in the woods looking for sticks to use for kindling and marshmallow holders, meaning that they were facing a terrifying lack of support. Louisa, Maddie, and Dani weren’t feeling helpful at the moment, considering that Louisa and Dani were quite busy with their crafting of friendship bracelets on the corner of their campsite.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do it?” Maddie asked, shooting looks at the pile of unassembled tent matter heaped onto the floor.

“No! Marge needs to learn responsibility!” said Syd as Margeaux dissolved into badly masked laughter behind their shoulder. 

“I do what I want!” Margeaux said through this laughter, before reaching for another pike, which was again slapped out of zir hands. 

“Are you sure I can’t just build the tent? Margeaux obviously won’t, and I really don’t mind…” said Maddie, already moving a bit closer to the tent materials, as if naturally drawn to it.

“Marge, I will take away your smore rights,” said Syd, crossing their arms. Margeaux’s jaw dropped, eyes darting to the marshmallow bag peeking out of Syd’s bag.

“You _wouldn’t_...”

“I do what I want.”

“I’ve never been more attracted to you than I am in this very moment,” said Margeaux, walking over to the tent with shame in zir steps. 

“Wow, you’d really play Elena like that?” Maddie asked, watching as Marge began to assemble the tent. Her eyes kept flickering to the instruction manual that zir had recklessly abandoned, which was now sprawled on the floor (probably bending a few pages, yikes) with specks of dirt spotting its cover. “Are you sure you aren’t going to use the manual?” Maddie asked, eyes obviously lingering on it.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna use it. You can have it, though.”

“Why aren’t you going to use it? It’s- it’s _right there_ , Marge, I don’t see any reason to just leave it there-”

“Because I’ve got intuition. I’m not taking Advanced Engineering in school for nothing!” said Margeaux.

“Didn’t you take that so you could tell people that you can ‘work with your hands’?” Syd asked, punctuating with air quotes.

“That’s why I took Intro to Engineering. I’m taking Advanced because I love building things and seeing how they work. Don’t underestimate me!” Margeaux warned, and Maddie had a moment of shock at the realization that Marge had properly assembled the first 3/4s of the tent, and now just had to finish it up.

“Holy shit. You did that faster than I did without the manual!”

“That’s engineer’s intuition baby!” said Margeaux, pointing at zir head with zir unoccupied hand.

“Engineer’s intuition or dumbass’ luck?” Syd asked, squinting their eyes at the tent, suspicion clouding the sight.

“Both,” chirped Margeaux before returning to work with a renewed zeal.

“Terrifying,” muttered Syd.

-

Thirty minutes later, after Elena and Thomas had come back from the forest and Dani had pulled out her guitar, the camping trip was in full swing. They had all sung “Sweet Caroline” (complete with Louisa’s eerily accurate trumpet noises) together, and were trying to get the fire started as the sun had just begun to set. 

“I think we should just wait until the sun is completely down,” said Maddie as she swayed a bit to the tunes of Dani’s idle strumming. 

“Why? I feel like if we’re going to be dealing with fire starting materials, it’ll be a bad idea to not be, like, completely illuminated,” said Thomas. He had all of the fire starting materials out, but was stuck on getting the initial log stack to catch.

“But then the actual fire and sparks will be harder to see,” said Maddie.

“I don’t think that’s how fire works,” said Dani.

“Can y’all please just let me start this now? I’ve got it,” he said, before blowing on some sparks to try to kindle them.

“Thomas, you literally- you just blew out the fucking fire. That’s- that’s the number one rule of fire, oh my god,” said Maddie before being easily interrupted by Elena sitting next to her on the log, taking all of her attention easily.

“Okay squad, I just got back from the main tent-” she began.

“You mean the tent where you and Syd are sleeping?” asked Thomas, eyes still focused on the fire. 

“Yes, that tent.”

“Why is it called the main tent, though?” Maddie asked.

“Because that’s where the action’s gonna be happening!” said Dani, putting on her best “Fuckboy” voice.

“Dani, shut _up_ , don’t say that to the people who are in charge of the smore materials! They have all the bags!” said Maddie.

“Maddie’s right. We have all the bags. That’s why it’s the main tent, because it’s the biggest and that’s where we’re packing all of y’all’s shit. If you keep running your mouth, my dude, your shit will be in the river,” said Syd.

“Damn. Camping makes you intense,” said Thomas, eyes wide and distracted from his task. “Elena is going to have a fun night,” he added, a little bit under his breath. Syd missed it, but Elena leaned over and slapped him playfully on the shoulder, hoping that not too many people noticed her smile.

“Anyway, as I was saying… I just got back from the main tent, and I found that friendship bracelet kit. Do we want to break that out now or later?” she asked.

“Wait, there’s another kit? Because my friendship bracelet kit is right here,” said Louisa, looking excitedly at her own drawstring bag by her feet.

“I brought a bag of beads too, just in case. Am I sensing a Bracelet Bonanza?” Dani asked.

“I sure hope so- oh fuck! Yes! I got it!” shouted Thomas in excitement as his fire caught on, blooming comfortably in the late afternoon air, just as the sun was getting ready to set. Louisa handed her bracelet making kit to Elena, who took it with an excited smile on her face.

-

Margeaux and Thomas, who had early on in the camping planning process decided that they’d be sharing a tent, were preparing their night time set up to the tune of rustling and discussion through the canvas filter of their tent, preparing the two easily sunburned kids from the outside world.

“I really don’t think that having this many Skittles in our tent is a good idea. Either ants will find it or Maddie will, and I don’t like either of those possibilities,” said Thomas, warily eyeing the big bag of Skittles that rested by Margeaux’s sleeping bag.

“I’m good at hiding things. I was in the closet for fourteen years, I think I can handle this bag of Skittles,” said Margeaux. 

“You right, you right,” said Thomas. “Also- I will cuddle with you all you want if I can get at least some of those Skittles.”

“I was already planning to share, but who am I to turn down cuddles?”

“I mean, I was already planning to cuddle, so neither of us are giving anything up here,” said Thomas. Margeaux reached into the bag and offered up a handful of the Skittles, which he gladly took.

“Taste the rainbow, baby!” said Margeaux, pouring the candy into Thomas’ open hands.

“We really are the peak of gay culture, Marge,” he said before shoving the entire handful into his mouth, chewing noisily.

“Indeed, Tommy-Boy.”

-

“Hot take? Sunrises are prettier than sunsets,” said Dani, gazing at the setting sun with Maddie by her side, sharing a log with Maddie. They were physically separated from the rest of the party, which had either retreated to their own tents for setup purposes or were crowded around Louisa and Elena’s intense arm wrestling match.

“You’re right, and you should say it,” said Maddie, her voice sounding a little bit distracted. Dani noticed the tint to her tone, and turned to look at her friend.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“I don’t know, this is just… kind of weird.”

“In what way?” Dani asked, noticing how Maddie’s eyes drifted towards Elena, who was knee deep in her arm wrestling.

“I kind of used to have a crush on Elena, so seeing her with Syd like this is- it’s just weird. I’m mostly over it, but like… wow, this is… wildin’,” said Maddie. The revelation took Dani back for a second, bringing random memories to her mind that suddenly made so much more sense with the new context. Then, she had another memory.

“Elena used to have a crush on me.”

“Really?”

“She told Thomas about it, apparently. It’s just Pronoun Squad Lore these days, because that’s so over, y’know? But it happened. We get crushes on each other sometimes, and that’s just the flow of life. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but like… look at her now. That little crush feels like it was years ago, and she’s so happy now. We get past these things. We move on. We meet new people and we hang out and we might fight sometimes, but we still keep moving. If there’s anything I like about these people and the way we work together, it’s how we’re just like some perpetual motion machine. There are always new jokes and new love affairs and new things to find happiness in. It’s weird, but by the next time we all hang out and go camping together, it might be less weird. And less weird after that. We’ll keep moving. This feeling won’t be for forever.”

“I hope so,” said Maddie.

“I know so. Things are always going to be changing,” said Dani, thinking wistfully on just the past year, and how radically different her life has become in just that short amount of time. 

“Keep this between us, alright?” asked Maddie, breaking the swelling silence with an anxious sort of desperate rasp to her voice. 

“No problem, ma’am,” answered Dani, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat. That much made Maddie giggle, a nice brush of levity entering the conversation. Maddie turned her eyes back to the sunset, at the sun swiftly falling below the horizon.

“I think you’re right about sunrises.”

“I’m glad to have someone on my team about this. Sunrises just- they feel like something’s beginning. Call me a sap, but I like the promise of it. Like… there’s all the potential in the world for this day to be great, and if today’s _not_ great, there’s always a sunrise tomorrow with just as much potential.”

“Yeah! It’s like that potential can’t die, like it _won’t_ die.” Maddie paused. “Are we thinking too much about this?”

“Probably. I like our reading of it though,” said Dani. The sun had set, now, and the night had begun.

“Me too. Wanna watch the sunrise with me tomorrow? We can wake up early for it,” suggested Maddie. She looked across at Dani, who with a sluggishly self assured smile and contentedness surrounding her like an aura, nodded. 

“It’s a plan.”

-

There they sat around the campfire, burning brightly and letting a golden glow warm up their faces as the night sky spread out above them, like some magnificently large painting. 

Thomas had just triumphantly thrown his SAT Prep Book into the fire, before unleashing a beastly noise to the sky in celebration over his apparent liberation from the College Board. 

“This is some Dead Poets Society kind of shit,” said Elena, smiling fondly at the scene. Thomas was celebrating, Margeaux was cheering him on while Louisa tried to burn a marshmallow over the fire. Syd, sitting by Elena’s side, rested their head on her shoulder. 

“Lucky for us, I guess,” said Syd, before yawning. 

“You tired, babe?”

“Yeah. Being a camp counselor is haaaaard,” they whined, speaking into Elena’s shoulder, and when the dragged-on word petered out, they pressed a small kiss to her shoulder.

“Especially with this rowdy lot,” said Elena, her gaze slipping to Dani and Maddie. Maddie had stolen her guitar, and was trying to play the guitar. It was very clear that Maddie had never learned how, making for a fun show as Dani kept grabbing for it while being serenaded with made-up lyrics and discordant strums of a guitar.

“Boy do I know it,” said Syd with an exaggerated sigh.

“Get a tent!” yelled Margeaux, drawing their attention from across the campfire.

“What?”

“Public canoodling? Unacceptable!” said Thomas, pointing dramatically at them with a stick.

“What, are you homophobic or something?” asked Dani, entering the fray.

“YES!” shouted Thomas, raising his stick in the air.

“Fine, we’ll get a tent. Sorry if you hear us through the canvas!” said Elena, standing up from the logging, effectively pulling Syd up with her.

“Wait, shit I didn’t mean that,” said Margeaux, clearly beginning to regret zir decision. This was the moment that Syd caught on, leading the charge away from the campfire.

“Sorry, Marge, you asked for this,” they said.

“At least bring some marshmallows for sustenance!” yelled Louisa, before practically punting the bag over to Syd and Elena, across the growing distance.

“This is what being an ally looks like!” yelled Elena, before reaching their tent and ducking in. 

They could hear the occasional shout as the tent was zipped up in a purposefully slow fashion, dragging out the moment until they were completely separated. Once the tent flap was closed, the two looked around the tent in a moment of confusion.

“So, what are we going to do?” Syd asked.

“I realize that we may have taken this bit too far,” said Elena. She looked at Syd, who was thinking carefully. There was a moment of careful consideration, before they began to speak.

“Well would it be a complete camping trip if we didn’t make out?”

“You’re right. We gotta. For the camping trip,” said Elena, already moving to Syd.

“For the camping trip,” they affirmed, before beginning to kiss Elena.

They were, after all, dedicated to making this camping trip work.

**Author's Note:**

> hey squad!! y'all probably know the drill by now.. if you have any fic requests, hit me up on tumblr @thesubtextmachine, and put something in my ask box! have an awesome day!


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